Ha ha. He was very effective for us last season, barring the odd positional mis-hap, very reliable at left-back.

Fair enough, I daresay you've seen more of him over the last year or so than I have.

Sadly, having watched him be routinely awful for the last few seasons preceding that period, I am somewhat prejudiced against him, and probably will never be able to accept him as anything remotely resembling good.

Clichy's biggest thing last season was that he just didn't make mistakes. He wasn't superb, got forward but rarely produced anything. But was defensively very solid. I hated the signing for defensive reasons but he proved me wrong with solid performances.

The one, the only CW Black

Code:

47.3 W Coppinger to Heads
Smacked the ball straight into the groin of Iwuajoku who has fallen over,
miraculously with the ball still caught in his scrotal area! Out!

I guess he wasn't awful defensively for Arsenal, generally speaking anyway. The infuriating thing about him was that he always used to give the ball away cheaply and repeatedly made gaffes. Just had no confidence in him at all by the end. Maybe playing in a really solid defensive unit has helped him come on a bit.

It also bugged me massively that he developed this reputation as being an attacking fullback. He always got high up the pitch, but then did piss all, apart from pass it backwards/lose the ball. So annoying.

If Tevez stays on his anti-psychotics for the season and doesn't **** off to the other side of the world I think we'll be okay. He's like a whole new signing. I really wish we'd signed some pace on the wing though, like Hazard or Lavezzi, just because we don't have anything close to that dynamic (which is obviously why you're saying Alves and Bale).

If United get RVP and he stays fit for the season I don't think we'll win it, but those are big ifs.

ps. I hate the Rodwell signing. Gives us nothing we didn't already have.

To be fair they still have Oscar and Marin to come, so they could yet have plenty to offer going forward. Depending on how the three new guys link up with Mata and Torres, and if they live up to their billing, they could be really threatening.

The trio of Mikel, Luiz and Terry is extremely suspect though. And like you say, not sure how well some of the old legs will hold up as the season progresses.

Yes, they do have two expensive new foreign signings that hardly anyone had heard of before this summer. They both have "crap fantasy football pick" written all over them. Even Hazard will probably take some time to adjust.

Hard to see where the goals will come from, especially if Lampard continues to fade. "I think Torres will come good this season" is the new "I think this is Liverpool's year". And of course their defence is very, very creaky.

Last edited by Uppercut; 13-08-2012 at 04:40 AM.

Originally Posted by indiaholic

Ireland on the other hand are everything that is good and just and beautiful in this world.

]"I think Torres will come good this season" is the new "I think this is Liverpool's year".

I generally agree with all the stuff you post, and I still sort of agree with you here, but he scared the absolute **** out of me last night every time he went near the ball. Had his pace, acceleration and especially his touch back. Looked genuinely frightening, and if Vincent Kompany wasn't the best CB in the league at the moment he'd have shredded us more than once. That said, it was only one game and we'll see where that goes.